A new feature of International Cricket Captain 2000 is the addition of 4
scenarios which allow you to replay some classic Test Match series of the past. The
scenarios included are

1954 Australia vs England

1966 England vs West Indies

1975 Australia vs West Indies

1981 England vs Australia

If Empire were to create additional Test Match series of the patch which one
would you like them to create and why? Send in your choices and 10 lucky winners drawn
from the hat will win. Note this is my idea and not Empire's. Whilst I will pass on
the results of the poll there is no mention of additional scenarios being created.

A couple of points about this competition seem to have to be mentioned

You can only enter once! Entering multiuple times will invalidate your entry.

The question asks for a SERIES not a specific Test.

Do not include the Series mentioned above or ones that are included in the game
i.e. England v West Indies 2000!

The scenarios in ICC 2000 are replayed from scratch not from a certain point in
the game. This would be the case with any additional scenarios.

Despite listing the scenarios included with the game the number of people who
obviously did not read the competition was quite staggering. Despite this there were 236
entries. A large number of these entries though were incorrect in either the wrong year or
saying Team A vs Team B when Team B was actually the home team.

This series had many fantastic moments,even though Australia did lose. This
series included one of the greatest test match finishes in history when the West Indies
beat Australia by 1 run at the Adelaide Oval. Tim May took 5/9 on the 3rd day to leave
Australia needing 186 to win the match, series and Frank Worrell Trophy for the first time
in 20 odd years. Australia crumbled to be 7/74 under the weight of Curtly Ambrose, and
when Justin Langer (in his test debut) was dismissed for a courageous 54 in over 4 hours,
Australia still needed 43 runs with one wicket in hand. The game seemed over but I along
with millions of cricket watchers were glued to their radios and TV sets as Tim May &
Craig McDermott inched their way closer to an improbable victory. At 9/184, McDermott
smacks one into Dessie Haynes at short leg and somehow he saves a certain boundary which
would have won the match. Next ball Courtney Walsh rips in a steepling bouncer which
McDermott gloves on it's way to Junior Murray. The West Indies win the closest test in
history by 1 run. I remember sitting their in front of the TV with the rest of my family
in absolute shock, speechless for almost 10 minutes at what we had just witnessed.

And there were many other fantastic moments in this awesome series.Lara scoring
277 at the SCG, his first major score, Curtly's magnificent spell in the 5th & final
test at Perth taking 7/1 on the opening day to destroy the Aussies (probably the best
spell of fast bowling I have witnessed) and help the Windies keep their unbeaten series
record alive.

Some other highlights in the series included on the 5th day of the first test at
the Gabba when Australia had set the Windies 230 odd to win in just over two sessions and
they had them in tatters at 4/9 but the Windies held on being 8/130 odd from memory. The
Second Test in Melbourne was a marvellous Australian Victory with Shane Warne making his
first significant contribution in test cricket when he rolled the Windies on a 5th day
wicket taking 7/52. He took the wicket of Richie Richardson with a flipper and until then
I don't think many people had seen this delivery, this effort was transformed Warne into
the bowler he is today.

This series was superb, probably the best I have ever witnessed as hard as that
is to say being an Australian. I would think that these West Indies & Australian teams
are the most closely matched teams that have ever challenged for the Frank Worrell Trophy.
Australia were too good in 75 when they blew them out 5-1, the Windies were not the
unrelenting machine back then. By the time 94/95 came around and Australia finally won the
trophy back, the West Indies were well below their best and were primed for defeat. The
92/93 teams with the Windies slipping a little from their magnificent 1980's play without
Viv and AB's Aussies star on the rise with the emerging talent of Shane Warne and a very
good batting line-up, I feel they are extremely close in skills and would make a
remarkable series to replay.

A truly remarkable test match. England 2-0 down in the series ridiculed in both
the English and Australian press beat the Australians at their own game. No-one could see
little English match the supposed best Test Match team ever and there backs were against
the wall for most of the match. But we showed the rest of the cricketeting world that we
could compete with the best and we did it with so much commitment, all the players dug in
together with true English spirit something which had been missing since the Botham era.
Chasing a target in their 4th innings Australia needed less than 80 runs with 9 wickets
remaining, a spectacular Ramprakash catch and an inspired performance by Gough on the
longest day of test match history (over 8 hours) right to the end, kept me on the edge of
my seat through the wee small hours and made me proud to be English when Gough uprooted
the stumps to take the last Australian wicket.

England were unlucky not to win the final test in Sydney in a match that
included a Gough hat-trick but from no-hopers in November 98 to a team that showed true
commitment and could compete with the best by January 99. It showed to me that England
were on the way back, but could I give people like myself even more pleasure if the series
was replayed by taking the Ashes of the Australian's. You know give me a chance and I
won't let you down!

I have chosen the 1932/33 Ashes Series on the basis of several factors. These
are as follows:

* The significance of the series at the time - England had lost the previous
Ashes series at home, and there was possibly a bit of expectation considering England won
4-1 the last time they went to Australia.

* The match-ups of great players, names which will go down in history - the
world-record breakers Bradman, Hammond & Ponsford, champion spinners Grimmet &
O'Reilly, English patriots Jardine & Sutcliffe, and the gritty Australian Stan McCabe
who scored one of the most memorable centuries when he made 187 not out, the first ever
100 made against Bodyline Bowling.

* The controversy - one of the most talked-about issues in cricket before
match-fixing -- Bodyline or "Leg Theory" - it restricted batsmen, it injured
batsmen, and it dismissed batsmen - yet this is the only test series in cricket history
for it to be employed throughout - even if it was only used by England.

* The previous point brings me to my final, and most important factor of all -
The Bradman Factor.. England captain Douglas Jardine had to come up with something to
counteract "The Don", as the memories of his world-record 334 still haunted the
English. That's not to mention that Bradman had just come away from a series against South
Africa averaging over 200!

Well Jardine came up with something alright - Paceman Harold Larwood. Larwood's
"Leg Theory" earned him 33 wickets at 19 for the series, while Bradman still
managed to average a healthy 56, compared to his team-mate's 20-odd averages.

If this scenario was to be replayed I would suggest the option of the choice to
captain either side.

Be England, and watch those Aussies duck and flinch as you line them down
legside, with a more-than-normal rate of body-blows to the batsmen. Try to repeat history,
or even better the 3-1 England result!

OR

Be Australia, and prepare to dig deep & fight hard as Larwood & Voce
fire them down at your body - who knows? you might just change history --- but don't
expect Bradman to be rattling off centuries, as in the scenario the Bowlers would be
favoured (particularly when bowling leg stump), just as it was in 1932/33.

Reason: This series was packed with tension, great fast and slow bowling and
batting that was at times simply superb. The series was tied 1-1 in the end but every
match bar none was enthralling, and four ended with the match going either way on the last
day.

One match that I'll always remember was on 2nd June and was fascinating.
Australia used to scoff at the English hoodoo score of 111, known the world over as
Nelson after the Admirals war wounds reduced him to one eye, one of a
more delicate pair of male organs. Not any more, following their collapse to 111, the same
score as in the Botham Test 13 years earlier. South Africas recovery was to win
after trailing by 123 was a different sort of victory from the Botham gung-ho
extravaganza. This one was fashioned by Jonty Rhodes whose first 50 took him over 2 hours
longer than Bothams first hundred. Rhodes also started at a similar low point,
coming in at 110 for 5, with his side still 13 adrift. He had to cope with a rampant Shane
Warne who took 12 wickets from 70 overs in the match. Hudson and Cronje were the only
batsmen he failed to dismiss in both innings. South Africa had a 59 with Symcox, De
Villiers, Mathews and Donald to come, the first three went for 27, but Donald stuck around
for 10 in a partnership of 36 for the 10th wicket. Taylor and Boon took Australia to 51
for 1 before De Villiers got them both. He also got the wicket of Tim May, the night
watchman, before the close on the 4th day. Donald picked up Border and Mark Waugh on the
last morning bringing the home side to 75 for 8, McDermott and Martyn then swung the bat
leaving just 8 needed and 2 wickets left. Tension mounted and Donald dismissed Martyn
leaving De Villiers to take a return catch from McGrath to steal a stunning victory. De
Villiers was man of the match with 6-43 of 23.3 overs.

This match was a display of both exceptional spin bowling, from Warne, pace
bowling, from de Villiers and Donald and McGrath, and also temperament and character in
the way Rhodes batted.

Reason: England's historic first tour of South Africa since their re-entry to
international cricket was a classic tight contest with the interfering weather always
adding a third element to play. Emulate Atherton's defining innings, make a better go at
managing Devon Malcolm and put right the 1-0 defeat for England.

The West Indies turned up in Australia virtually unknown, but they showed in
this test series that they were a team that would remain as one of the all time greats
with such players as Garfield Sobers, Frank Worrell and Wes Hall. But the Australians were
also just as good with greats as Richie Benaud, Norman O'Niell and Bobby Simpson who are
all still know as some of the best players to grace world cricket.

The first test match is still known as one of the best test matches of all time
as it reached a dramatic ending. Garfield Sobers showed that he was one of the all time
greats with a 2-hour century against, at the time, the best in the world. But he was by no
means over shadowed by Alan Davidson who's all round performance was second to none with
bowling figures in the match of 11-222 and batting scores of 44 and 80. But as the match
began to draw to a close the Australians thought it was in the bag with only 6 needed off
the last 8 ball over. But eventually there were 2 run outs and the end of Richie Benaud
with 5 runs bringing the first tie in test cricket history.

Eventually, after the exciting first test, the Australians won it 2-1. But by
the end of the tour, the West Indies who arrived anonymous, left by a heroic ticker tape
parade through the streets of Melbourne. The test series brought a change to the history
of cricket, for the first time, the West Indies had shown themselves as a cricketing
nation and one capable of dominating against the best teams of all time. It showed that
the Ashes also were not the greatest series of cricket and that some tests could rival
this.

The West Indies came into this series after a 5-0 hammering in South Africa,
Australia had thoroughly defeated the English at home. The series includes some of the
all-time great names - Walsh, Ambrose, Waugh, Lara, Warne and McGrath (although Warne
suffered from a severe lack of form). West Indies returned from their lowest score (51 all
out) to level the series, largely down to one B C Lara, who ended with a series average of
91, including three hundreds - one score of 213. It also includes one of the truly great
Tests - Bridgetown, where Lara restored faith in his captaincy, if only briefly with an
unbeaten 153 to take them to victory by a single wicket. Could a different captain take
either side to victory?

England went to South Africa with a squad comprising of a mixture of youth and
experience, the youth provided us supporters with a glimmer of optimism after years in the
doldrums of cricket. What came out of the tour was the emergence of several good
Englishmen, notably Michael Vaughn and Andy Flintoff and the revival of Andy Caddick. We
saw that although England might well struggle and collapse against the best they have the
ability to produce a performance every once in a while that startles the opposition, most
notably at Durban. We saw from the series a display of exceptional fast bowling from both
Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald , the undoubted all-round brilliance of Jacques Kallis,
swashbuckling Lance Klusener, and the up and coming Gibbs, in this series we were witness
really to the all round depth of South Africa's game but also this series was the first
time in my 15 year life that I have seen an England cricket team go on tour and actually
have a feeling of optimism/hope in my body that they could do well, they did to an extent
and we came out of the series not too disappointed.

The first test saw West Indies bowled out for 51 in the first innings, their
lowest ever! After such a demoralising performance, they fought back to win the second
Test through Lara's fantastic one handed effort. Not to be left behind, the Aussies in
their true fighting spirit matched fire for fire and blew them away again. Just for the
West Indies to bounce back again in an astonishing one wicket win mastered again by one of
the greatest contemporary cricketers of all time, Brian Charles Lara. The series
fluctuated to such an extent that Steve Waugh, the Australian captain was heard saying
that it was the most fiercely competed series in his cricketing career.

With the cancellation of the South Africa tour in 1970, England played host to a
Rest of the World XI over five 'test' matches. Without the introduction of a 'test match
championship' this series with the likes of Graeme Pollock, Clive Lloyd, Mike Procter,
Gary Sobers and of course Ray Illingworth, Alan Knott and Derek Underwood offered the
greatest array of talent seen in many an international series. England subsequently lost
the series 4-1, but to any Englishman surely this scenario would be the ultimate
challenge.